Page 5 of What If It's You?

“Whatisthe program? You called it AltR, but alter…what? You Lightning guys might as well be in a black box as far as the rest of us plebs are concerned.”

“Not alter, Alt-R,” Drew said, shaking his mouse to bring his screen to life. “It stands for Alternate Reality. And it’s funny you mention a black box.” He sniffed out a wry laugh. “You’ve heard of Schrödinger’s cat, right?”

“The cat that’s somehow alive and dead at the same time?”

“Bingo. Until you open the box and the quantum superposition resolves into one state or the other.” Drew’s eyes sparked with excitement. “Though it doesn’t reallyresolvethe superposition so much as the act of observation reveals—”

“You’re already losing me here, Drew…”

“Sorry, I’ve been spending a lot of time with physicists lately.” He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “In the simplest terms…the cat being both alive and dead, at least until we observe it, is a logical result of quantum principles. And if you tease the concept out far enough, you get to the idea of a multiverse.”

“Like…parallel universes?”

“Sorta. Every time you open the box, you see that the cat is either alive or dead inyouruniverse. But in another universe it’s the opposite.”

“Sorry…I’m still struggling. Wouldn’t that just make two universes?” Drew sniffed and I grimaced, mildly embarrassed. “English major, remember?”

“Think of it this way. Basically, every possible universe thatcanexist—or at least any universe that follows the laws of physics—doesexist somewhere. Forget about the cat in the box, think more local. We’re in the Pixel building in Cambridge, having a normal workday. Theoretically there’s a universe that’s exactly the same in every single way except my desk is in that corner instead of this one.” He pointed to where the quantum computer loomed. “There’s one where you wore a red shirt today instead of a white one. There’s one where everything about your life was exactly the same until you wore a red shirt at the exact wrong place and time and a bull charged you in the street.”

“But everything else is the same?” I raised an eyebrow. “Just got up, dusted off, and reported to the marketing department post bull-charge in that universe?”

“No, actions still have consequences. Once the bull charges, everything that happens from that point forward changes in that universe.” He scrunched up his nose, gaze shooting up and to one side. “I mean…not literally—the idea of time being linear is just a limitation of human perception. But for the Laurel who’s living in the bull universe, it willfeelthat way.”

“But it won’t feel different in the red-shirt-today universe?”

“Maybe, maybe not. It’s impossible to know.” Drew’s grin was so wide his straight white teeth showed on both the top and the bottom. He looked like a kid who had just gotten his top wishlist item on Christmas morning. “It’s what we’re trying to findout.”

“So you’re building parallel dimensions? How?”

“Not building them. More likeseeingthem. Or maybe just…imagining them? A big enough quantum computer can run more calculations per second than there are atoms in our entire universe. The current one, to be clear.”

“White shirt, no bull charge.”

“Right. In that universe—thisuniverse—a big enough quantum computer could functionally imagine all the other universes, just computationally. It could run every possible scenario for every possible atom at every moment in time.” Drew licked his upper lip, eyes going distant with something like wonder. “And the even crazier thing is, let’s say just a fraction of a percent of the possible universes selected for human life on earth. Some percentage ofthosewill also have quantum computers, and they’ll also be running that same computation, which means that briefly, those universes are almost like…touching.”

“You’re losing me again.”

“You know what? Forget all the quantum physics for why this is possible. It’s easier if I just show you what itis. Put that on.” He pointed to what I’d assumed was a VR headset. “Make sure it’s on tight, and put it right against your forehead.” He mimed brushing my hair out of the way and I picked up the headset. It was shockingly heavy, and I could see a shimmering network of wires running across the inside of the device. Instead of a strap to tighten it around my head, the entire rig was attached to what looked like a swim cap, with an intricate maze of wires that ran from front to back, like a circuitry mohawk.

“Are we gaming?”

“I’m going to show you a demo we captured the last time I was testing the software. The AI is robust enough to let you explore it on your own. Ideally I’d let you have your own from-scratch experience, but it takes a while for the software to calibrate to the user. Though the AI is getting faster at that every day.”

“Calibrate how? Like…adjust to my height?”

“Confirm that it’s correctly reading your brain waves so it can continuously interface with them. Cortical motor stuff is easy, butwhen we’re talking about playing out all the possible outcomes of a particular inflection point in your life, well”—he flashed his teeth in a brief grimace—“that’s a little trickier for the AI to perfectly recreate. But forget about that for now, it’s not relevant.” He flicked his hand at the headset again, obviously impatient. “Go on. I promise it’s safe, everyone on the team has done this dozens of times.”

Heart beating faster, I positioned the headset against my forehead, letting Drew help me tug the snug cap into place. The screen surrounding my eyes was dark, and I could hear Drew typing rapidly next to me. Suddenly it flared to life.

“What are you seeing, Laurel?”

“It looks like…a cornfield?” I turned my head slowly, eyes adjusting to the twilit scene. As I moved, the vista changed seamlessly, the illusion of immersion total. I was on a path in the middle of the field, huge stalks towering to my right and left. I reached out to one of them, momentarily forgetting that the experience was visual—Iwouldn’t be able tofeelthe silky green leaf.

Except that I could. I yelped, startled.

“What’s going on?” The worry in Drew’s voice perversely helped ground me.

“I canfeelthe cornstalk, Drew.”

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